Fighting is it normal for 6 week old pullets or do we have roos?

[somebodysmom]

So we got 6 "Easter Egger" pullets, 6 "Red" pullets and 2 gray/black (possible Rock Island) straight run chicks. They are about 6 weeks old and they have been indoors until yesterday when the coop was finally finished. I am now seeing some behavior that has me concerned. Needlessly? Please tell me, I am a rank amatuer!

Of the 6 white and black "easter eggers" I have 4 that are fighting - they all 4 have larger, darker combs than the other 2 and what I think are wattles. When I say fighting, I mean that they face off and run at each other, fluff up their neck feathers and 1 out of 5 encounters ends up in neck biting and feathers flying. The other 10 chickens don't fight at all and seem to avoid these 4 whenever possible.

Could 4 of my 6 pullets be Roosters?

 

[ragerkid2]

its just part of the pecking order...
Good luck To Ya!

 

[Shannon33]

Yes, they could very well be roosters, but I had a little silkie that as a chick would run around terrorizing everyone and drop kicking them and it ended up being a she, so I think it's not a definite indicator.

 

[gryeyes]

Pullets as well as cockerels (and even hens and roosters) will face off against each other and flare their feathers, even chest bump. It's pecking order behavior. Nothing to worry about.

Of course, some of them may turn out to be cockerels, but as another poster mentioned, it's not an indication of gender by itself.

 

[nurseshelly]

Quote:
For mine, the girls will fluff out neck feathers, and run at each other ... they will also chest bump like someone else mentioned.

My boys however, get low and horizontal (think attacking slinky dog in Toy Story) and fluff out neck feathers and charge with head low. Mine never got to where they hurt each other. Oh, also, my Serama roo would charge the coop and jump at the standard roo when he was in the coop. We found a home for the standard roo, since we want to raise Seramas. This happened more than once, since we ended up with more than one roo - each time the slinky dog thing.

 

[somebodysmom]

Thank you, this is very helpful. At what point will I be able to tell Rooster from hen?

 

[nurseshelly]

Quote:
It's hard to say, with mine I had two late bloomers who were Ameraucanas and looked 100% hen until 22 weeks. Then they started getting more gangly looking, tails changed, got a little longer but not really looking roo like, then they started getting hackle feathers ... and then lastly saddle feathers. They did get red combs too, but not redder than my laying hens so I wasn't sure at first. The second on started after the first, and my serama roo started doing the slinky dog thing with him before I could see the roo features. I started really looking then and I caught it quicker with him. Oh the first one it was funny because we heard crowing in the morning and our serama rooster was inside - so we were like - oh no, who is roo two!?!
Bantams usually mature faster, and by a month the ones I've had are obviously boys.
If yours are all the same age, I think it will be easier to tell because you can compare them to each other. I would look at body shape, feathers and combs when you compare.

 

[Splinky01]

This is my second time raising chicks. I’ve got10 6 week old serama cross chicks. Today one chick who was first to look like a roo started attacking 2 others. He’s really hurt them. Blood all around their faces. One I think is another roo but the other one has small comb and tiny bit of wattle showing . Out of 10 chicks all but 2 have some wattle showing. Does this mean I have 8 Roos to kill? one chick had no comb showing but slight wattle which has confused me!! As I don’t know what they’re crossed with I’m biding my time hoping that I’m wrong and I have a few more hens!! I have separated the 2 injured chicks who seem happy together at moment in the house. Any advice welcome!! Thanks Natalie

 

[Birdsong 82]

All chickens grow waddles. Six weeks is really really young to determine age. I would suggest taking the bully out and separating the bully by themselves. I had to New Hampshire’s that started being bullies so I took them out and put them in jail for the day. They were not happy with their status but they had calm down quite a bit once I put them back. Sometimes it takes a little longer. But don’t let the waddle scare you. Hens waddles they’re just smaller than the roosters

 

[Birdsong 82]

How bad are the injuries on the two? If you want to send some pictures through we can look at the waddles. But that’s still a very very young age to determine sex. You said six weeks?